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Frédéric Chopin (March, 1810, Zelazowa Wola – October 17, 1849,
Paris) was a Polish piano composer of the Romantic period.
He is widely regarded as one of the most famous, influential,
prolific and perhaps more importantly, moving composers for piano of all time.
Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, Poland, to a Polish mother and
French-expatriate father. Hailed in his homeland as a child prodigy, at age twenty
Chopin left for Paris.
In Paris he made a career as performer, teacher and composer, and
adopted the French version of his given names, "Frédéric-François." From 1837 to
1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French writer George Sand (Aurore
Dudevant). Always in frail health, at 39 he succumbed to pulmonary
tuberculosis.
All of Chopin's extant work includes the piano in some role (predominantly as a
solo instrument), and his compositions are widely considered to be among the
pinnacles of the piano's repertoire. Although his music is among the most
technically demanding for the instrument, Chopin's style emphasizes nuance and
expressive depth rather than mere technical display. He invented some musical
forms, such as the ballade, but his most significant innovations were within
existing structures such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, and
prelude.
His works are often cited as being among the mainstays of
Romanticism in 19th-century classical music. Additionally, Chopin was the first
western classical composer to imbue Slavic elements into his music; to this day his
mazurkas and polonaises are the cornerstone of Polish nationalistic classical
music.
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Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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